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"I have to exercise. I just hate exercise. If you know anyone who likes it, I want to know their secret.
My rule is moderation. I talk to my body. I listen to my body. I don't want to be around negative people.
And I never go out without my lipstick, blush, and earrings.
"For the first time in my life, I only do the things that I want to do. People say life is not a bed of roses.
Well, I've certainly had my share of the thorns.
"Divorces, rejections, deaths. There was the drug problem of my son Geary. It was during the 1960s.
He was 14. I prayed a lot.
"Then I heard the phrase `tough love'. I had to learn to say no, and not feel guilty.

"Some years ago Geary rang and said: `I've just joined the world. I've joined Alcoholics Anonymous.'
And he's well to this day.
"One of the worst things in life is not being wanted. I was feeling this, many years ago. Then someone
gave me a dog, and suddenly I felt needed.
"The more we live through crises, the less important they become."

And what about Fred Astaire? How was the legend to work with?
"Well, it was very nerve-wracking. I was not the first choice for Royal Wedding. June Allyson was
pregnant. Judy Garland was ill.
"No-one really knew Fred. We never had so much
as a cup of coffee with him. But there's never been
anyone like him."
Her own favorite Jane Powell movie is not Royal
Wedding. And it's not Rich, Young and Pretty
(1951), or Nancy Goes To Rio (1950), and not even
Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954).

It's a 1950 also-ran called Two Weeks With Love,
also starring Ricardo Montalban and Debbie
Reynolds (who was to become a star the next year
with Singin' In The Rain).
Just before he died in 1998, Frank Sinatra sent Jane Powell a photo taken of the two of them in the
1940s. He had written on it: "To Janey. I don't remember ever being that young. But you haven't
changed a bit."
Eventually even Jane Powell had to get a little older.

"When I started getting a seat on the bus, I knew I had at last grown up. At 60, I was prepared to be
upset. But it hasn't happened yet.
"At 70, I got my first government payment. It was my first real money. Managers had always handled it
before." And now, at 76?
"If I'd known getting older was going to be this good, I'd have done it sooner."

This article originally appeared in the Geelong Advertiser. It is reproduced here with the
permission of the author.
My thanks to Ian McLeod for submitting this article and obtaining author’s permission to
reprint it in Reel Deals – Mike
8 REEL DEALS June 2006